After a long career filled with accomplishments and awards, North Carolina head coach Roy Williams is retiring.

Williams is leaving as one of the most accomplished college basketball coaches of all time. Williams is a future Hall of Famer with 900 wins under his belt and three national championships.

Williams announced his retirement on Thursday and had a press conference to discuss his decision. “It has been a thrill. It has been unbelievable. I’ve loved it,” Williams said. “It’s coaching, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since the summer after my ninth-grade year of high school.” “No one has ever enjoyed coaching like I have for 48 years.”

Williams began his storied coaching career as an assistant coach for North Carolina from 1978-1988. As an assistant coach, he had the opportunity to coach Michael Jordan, who played for the Tar Heels in college. In 1982, Jordan helped the Tar Heels win a national championship; it was Williams’ first national title.

After 10 seasons with North Carolina, Williams left to become the head coach for Kansas. The head coach spent 15 seasons with Kansas and led them to nine regular-season conference titles, and 14 NCAA tournaments. Kansas advanced to the final four on four occasions and two national title games.

“Roy Williams has been an icon in our industry for the last 33 years, and his retirement is very well deserved,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said in a statement. “Roy won at the highest level and projected first-class while doing so.”

In 2003, Williams returned to North Carolina and became their new head coach. The coach had unprecedented success for North Carolina that included national championships. In just his second season as head coach, he won his first national title as a head coach. In 2009, he coached the Tar Heels to another title for his second national title. In 2017, North Carolina won their third title under Williams.

“The countless lives he positively affected surpasses all of the individual honors and awards,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “Roy’s fingerprints will forever be on the sport of college basketball, and specifically the Atlantic Coast Conference. We wish him, Wanda, and his entire family all the best as he begins this next chapter of an amazing life.”

Williams finishes his coaching career with a 903-264 record. Williams ranks fourth in all-time wins among Division I coaches. In addition, he holds the NCAA record for being the only coach to record 400+ wins with two different schools.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams did not hold back his feelings about his team on Sunday after they suffered a 96-83 loss to Georgia Tech. Off to an 8-6 start on the season, Williams called his team “the least gifted team I’ve ever coached in the time that I’ve been back here.”

On his weekly radio show Roy Williams Live, the Tar Heels coach voiced his frustrations.

SLIDESHOW: 50 GREAT SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019

“We stunk, ok. We were not very good,” Williams said. “The crazy thing about it is, our team, and we’ve had some very gifted teams, this is not a very gifted team. It’s just not.”

Williams began coaching the Tar Heels in 2003 and this season is the first time UNC has lost six of its first 14 games in his era. Williams blamed a lot of the poor start to the lack of talent, having lost quite a few players to the NBA Draft, as well as an injury to star player Cole Anthony.

Colby White, Cameron Johnson and Nassir Little were all first-round picks in the draft.

Williams’ overall record at UNC is 461-139, as he’s led them to three national championships, nine Atlantic Coast Conference titles and three ACC tournament championships. He has also received one AP National Coach of the Year and two ACC Coach of the year awards.

North Carolina will play Pitt on Wednesday at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, as they seek their first win of ACC play.

Without their star player Cole Anthony, the North Carolina Tar Heels were  in a downward spiral. Now, they are in danger of not making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years.

They have lost five of their last six, and now with Anthony out after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Cole, the son of former NBA player Greg Anthony stated that if all goes well, he is set to return in one month, missing about seven games. When asked if there were any encouraging signs as to how his team played without Anthony, Legendary Head Coach Roy Williams replied ‘no.’

“I’d love to have Cole with us because he was playing better than anybody else on the offensive end, and second or third-best grade wise on the defensive end, but it is an excuse,” Williams said. “I’m glad that I’m able to get Anthony (Harris) and Jeremiah (Francis) some time, because I think in the long term, that may help, but I just don’t know that I will live that long.”

SLIDESHOW: 50 GREAT SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019

UNC’s ranking has not been favorable this year (95th), and neither has their schedule. They played top 15 teams five out of the past six teams. The good news is they have an easier schedule ahead. UCLA has a sightly better record, (7-4 to 6-5) but they are not as strong, Yale (9-3) plays in the weaker Ivy conference, Georgia Tech (4-5), Pittsburgh (8-3), and Clemson (5-5).

By the time their schedule gets tough again, Anthony is set to return. In his absence, Williams has been trying to develop his young core of players, but apparently it has not been working.

“I have some guys who have lost some confidence with their shot,” Williams said. “Some other guys have got to do better on the defensive end. But our whole team and the coaching staff, we’ve got to do a heck of a lot better.”

Among those who they are developing, freshman Armando Bacot, has struggled recently shooting 2 for 14 and 1 for 6 the last few games.

The Tar Heels play the Bruins on Saturday at 3:00pm EST.

North Carolina Tar Heels coach Roy Williams expressed his thankfulness to being alive and to his team for the way it responded to a vertigo attack that caused him to collapse around 14 minutes before the end of the first half of the game against Boston College. The Tar Heels secured a 68-65 road ACC win against the Boston College Eagles on Tuesday night, and Coach Williams was forced to watch most of the second half from the locker room.

Roy Williams Carried Off To Locker Room After Collapsing

The incident occurred during a huddle on the sideline, after Williams said he jerked his head suddenly while discussing a foul call with the referee. He then fell slowly onto the floor of Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

“I’m alive. I’m kicking,” Williams, 65, said afterward. “I’ve had some vertigo attacks over the last 17 or 18 years. This is the first time I really had one during a game. I said something to the referee. I didn’t respond correctly to his response. I kind of whirled around, and that’s when it hit.”

Williams stated that his condition, known as benign positional vertigo, is triggered by sudden head movements. He has had previous bouts with vertigo in the past and has felt dizzy when standing up too quickly.

Assistant coach Steve Robinson assumed coaching duties for the Tar Heels for the remainder of the game. Williams received medication in the locker room and stayed there until after the game, when he went out to shake Eagles coach Jim Christian’s hand.

“I was very concerned because I didn’t want to be a distraction,” he told Christian, among others. “I’ll be fine. I’m not dead yet.”

“For him to come back out and congratulate our kids on their effort speaks volumes as to why he’s a Hall of Fame coach,” Christian said about Williams after expressing relief that the latter’s incident wasn’t serious. “He really wanted to congratulate them, and deservedly so. Anybody who saw this game today saw a lot of heart, a lot of character.”

North Carolina sophomore swingman Justin Jackson, who led the Tar Heels with 20 points, said part of the reason the team was able to stay focused and not panic after the incident was that it had seen Williams go through similar attacks.

“We know he’ll be back out there for us,” Jackson said. “He’s our leader. We’ll rely on him and know he’ll be back out there. We’ve seen it before, not in a game, but we’ve seen it before, and he’s been fine after a little bit.”

North Carolina is now 20-4 this season, while Boston College is 7-17.

The soft-spoken UNC coach Roy Williams has not always been able to maintain the coolest composure: in fact, the general public was able to see one of his outbursts during last night’s match-up between UNC and William & Mary. During the second-half, while the Tar Heels were leading 61-47, Coach Williams was trying to call a timeout.

Unfortunately, the referee did not see this; as Williams got louder and more animated, the ref must have not liked his tone. Instead of receiving the timeout, Williams was given a technical; needless to say, he was not happy.

Luckily, the technical did not really matter as UNC finished strong: securing an 86-64 victory, moving on to 10-3. Their next match-up is Saturday Jan.  3 versus the Clemson Tigers.